[New] Memory Lane Flowers Relocates

By Wilma Kenny

Christine Kennedy is realizing a long-time goal by relocating Memory Lane Flowers to her home in Sydenham, just up the street from its long-time location across from the bank.in the old.

Twenty-five years ago, Chris began Memory Lane Tearoom and Floral in an old village blacksmith shop, a building that has housed a variety of different services over the years, including a pharmacy and a library. After the first ten years, the tea-room morphed into a thriving gift shop. Covid saw a steep decline in the gift trade, but the floral department, Chris’s first love, has flourished throughout. This past year alone, she provided the flowers for 25 weddings, and maintained deliveries and pickups for many other individuals and occasions.

On his recent retirement, Chris’s husband Gary suggested she join him by closing down her business. However, he seemed to enjoy helping with shop deliveries, and she just wasn’t ready to put away her floral clippers! Ever since Chris bought her house in Sydenham, she had dreamed of having a flower shop there, but the necessity of providing personal care to family members at several times over the years had stood in the way. Now at last seemed the perfect time to bring the floral business home. Gary was in full agreement, so closing right after Christmas, Memory Lane Flowers has reopened at 4350 Mill Street, Sydenham. It’s a graceful, spacious house, once a storefront for a popular village shop catering to SHS students.

Christine Kennedy has a long history of community involvement in Sydenham. The annual Hallowe’en candyshare was her idea: for years, folks living near Sydenham had brought their children into the village for Hallowe’en trick or treating. As more and more people moved into the rural areas, this became a burden to the villagers who found themselves running out of treats, overwhelmed by 3-4 hundred small visitors before 8 o’clock. It was Chris who had the idea of welcoming donated boxes of treats from outside the village, which then were available to any villagers who wanted to pass candies out, no questions asked. Chris generously makes her shop the drop-off/collection point during the week before Hallowe’en.

Chris was also one of our amazing story-tellers for the historical walking tour of Sydenham: she brought the history of the old blacksmith shop to life by dressing in character as the blacksmith’s wife. Meanwhile, Gary further delighted the visitors with his working model steam engine.

4350 Mill St: 613 376-6309 www.memorylaneflowers. ca. Drop by for a visit!